With the continuous evolution and development of network techniques, forwarding and control element separation is a trend. OpenFlow provides a novel network model, and an OpenFlow network may comprise two types of devices: OpenFlow controller and OpenFlow switch. An OpenFlow controller is responsible for the centralized controlling of the network, sending flow tables to OpenFlow switches, and the OpenFlow controller is open to users; an OpenFlow switch performs packet matching and forwarding according to the flow tables. In this manner, a user can define flows on the OpenFlow controller by himself and control paths of the flows in the network, so that network control can be given to users.
Before communicating between an OpenFlow switch and an OpenFlow controller, a connection between the OpenFlow switch and the OpenFlow controller has to be established. In order to realize establishment of such a connection, parameters can be manually configured for the connection to be established. After completing configuration of the parameter of the connection to be established, the OpenFlow switch and the OpenFlow controller can perform connection establishment actions according to the parameter of the connection to be established. Configuring parameters for a connection to be established manually may lead to lower efficiency of establishing the connection between the OpenFlow switch and the OpenFlow controller, which is adverse to rapid connection establishment.